This invention relates to methods and apparatus for forward error correction coding, and more particularly to such methods and apparatus for use in digital audio broadcasting systems.
Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) is a medium for providing digital-quality audio, superior to existing analog broadcasting formats. AM In-Band, On-Channel (IBOC) to DAB can be transmitted in a hybrid format where a digitally modulated signal coexists with the AM signal, or it can be transmitted in an all-digital format where the removal of the analog signal enables improved digital coverage with reduced interference. The hybrid format allows existing receivers to continue to receive the AM signal while allowing new IBOC receivers to decode the DAB signal. In the future, when IBOC receivers are abundant, a broadcaster may elect to transmit the all-digital format. The DAB signal of the all-digital format is even more robust than the hybrid DAB signal because of allowed increased power of the former with a digital time diversity backup channel. IBOC requires no new spectral allocations because each DAB signal is simultaneously transmitted within the spectral mask of an existing AM channel allocation. IBOC promotes economy of spectrum while enabling broadcasters to supply digital quality audio to their present base of listeners.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,588,022 teaches a method for simultaneously broadcasting analog and digital signals in a standard AM broadcasting channel. An amplitude modulated radio frequency signal having a first frequency spectrum is broadcast. The amplitude modulated radio frequency signal includes a first carrier modulated by an analog program signal. Simultaneously, a plurality of digitally modulated carrier signals are broadcast within a bandwidth that encompasses the first frequency spectrum. Each of the digitally modulated carrier signals is modulated by a portion of a digital program signal. A first group of the digitally modulated carrier signals lies within the first frequency spectrum and is modulated in quadrature with the first carrier signal Second and third groups of the digitally modulated carrier signals lie outside of the first frequency spectrum and are modulated both in-phase and in-quadrature with the first carrier signal. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/049,217, assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, discloses another embodiment of an AM Digital Audio Broadcasting system.
Coding for an IBOC DAB system has been described in: B. Kroeger, D. Cammarata, “Robust Modem and Coding Techniques for FM Hybrid IBOC DAB,” IEEE Trans. on Broadcasting, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 412-420, December 1997. Trellis coded modulation has been proposed for use in AM IBOC DAB systems. Pragmatic trellis coded modulation (PCTM) has been described in: A. Viterbi, et al., “A Pragmatic Approach to Trellis-Coded Modulation,” IEEE Communications Magazine, pp. 11-19, July 1989. The use of complementary punctured codes has also been proposed for IBOC DAB systems. Complementary punctured codes have been described in: S. Kallel, “Complementary Punctured Convolution (CPC) Codes and Their Applications,” IEEE Trans. Comm., Vol 43, No. 6, pp. 2005-2009, June 1995. The present invention seeks to provide an improved forward error correction method for use in AM IBOC DAB transmitters. Receivers that process signals that were transmitted in accordance with the method are also described.